Monday, December 17, 2012

Google goes Galt!

The company avoided about $2 billion in worldwide income taxes in 2011 by shifting $9.8 billion in revenue into a Bermuda shell company, almost double the total from three years before, filings show.

Governments in France, the U.K., Italy and Australia are probing Google’s tax avoidance as they seek to boost revenue. Schmidt said the company’s efforts around taxes are legal.

We pay lots of taxes; we pay them in the legally prescribed ways,” he said. “I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate.”

The company isn’t about to turn down big savings in taxes, he said.

“It’s called capitalism,” he said. “We are proudly capitalistic. I’m not confused about this.”

Editor's note - This website is a proud member of the Google family, (in so many ways).

So what you're saying, and correct me if I'm wrong about this, is that circumventing the law is the proper, libertarian way of doing things in capitalism? And you guys wonder why you struggle to be taken seriously?

And congratulations Eric, you managed to find a picture where the CEO of Google had his arms crossed and juxtaposed it with a picture of a highly overrated writer with a fundamentally unsound political philosophy (oh and she couldn't write dialogue either, but that's not really the issue). Great job. Now stop fishing for compliments, it makes you look silly.